James Curtis, author of the Preston Sturges biography "Between Flops," writes:
I was a little taken aback today when I came upon
your clutch of articles on Preston Sturges, and was suddenly reminded that he
died exactly 50 years ago in that tiny room at the Algonquin Hotel in New
York. I began researching my Sturges biography ("Between Flops") 33 years ago
when I was received at the hilltop mansion of Rudy Vallee, where Sturges was the
subject of conversation between rounds of tennis.
I think now of the embarrassment of riches I had in
writing that book--Joel McCrea, William Wyler, Billy Wilder, Eddie Bracken,
Colleen Moore, Orson Welles, Bill Demarest, three of his four wives--and how
today I'm reduced to interviewing the children of those people--and glad to get
them. Mr. S., incidentally, turns up in this book I've just finished, in that
Spencer Tracy was the star of "The Power and the Glory," the film that
supposedly invented the flashback (it really didn't) but does look suspiciously
like "Citizen Kane."
The late Earl Felton's comment about Sturges fits
him best: "He was too large for this smelly resort, and the big studios were
scared to death of him. A man who was a triple threat (writing, directing, and
producing!) kept them awake nights, and I'm positive they were all waiting for
him to fall on his face so they could pounce on him and devour this terrible
threat to their stingy talents... In this, alas, I was right. They pounced, and
they got him good. But Preston knew the great days, when he was turning out
marvelous pictures... those days when his can glowed like a port light from
everyone kissing it!"
May 27, 1953: David Knight is cast in "Sabrina Fair."
June 20, 1953: More about Knight, who vanished from the final cast.
Aug. 22, 1953: The leads are cast: Audrey Hepburn, William Holden and Humphrey Bogart.
Sept. 30, 1953: Casting continues.
Oct. 3, 1953
Oct. 9, 1953: Filming is in progress in New York.
Oct. 24, 1953: Although the film is in black and white, Holden dyes his hair red. And another plug for Cy Howard! He must have been one of Hedda Hopper's favorites.
Oct. 26, 1953: Holden talks about a movie he'd like to make.
Sept. 23, 1954: Edwin Schallert reviews "Sabrina." "Constantly through the cleverness of individual situations 'Sabrina' seems to override what is wrong with its plot and even its motivation. It is strictly movie in its essential values which all too often, according to all-too-well established Hollywood tradition, completely disregard the issue of being convincing."
March 26, 1954: William Holden wins his only Oscar for "Stalag 17," after being nominated for "Sunset Boulevard" and in 1977 for "Network." Billy Wilder (best director) and Robert Strauss (best supporting actor) are also nominated,
Feb. 16, 1954: The Academy Award nominations are announced.
March 26, 1954: Holden and Audrey Hepburn win Academy Awards. Say, how about casting them together in a film ... directed by Billy Wilder?
July 5, 1953: The ads for "Stalag 17" emphasized that it was a comedy.
July 3, 1951: Rumors surface that Wilder will direct "Stalag 17," less than a month after the disastrous opening of "Ace in the Hole." "Stalag 17" opens almost precisely two years later.
Oct. 11, 1951: Hedda Hopper, who panned "Ace in the Hole," reports that Wilder will make a film of the hit Broadway play "Stalag 17" with Charlton Heston.
Oct. 14, 1951: A plot summary of "Stalag 17" emphasizing that it's a comedy. Local audiences wouldn't necessarily be familiar with the play, which didn't premiere in Los Angeles until June 1952.
Oct. 24, 1951: Casting continues for "Stalag 17." For some reason, Hopper ardently used her column to plug Cy Howard, who left the film after two weeks of shooting.
Dec. 4, 1951: Cast change. William Holden will co-star with Heston.
Dec. 19, 1951: Casting continues.
Jan. 5, 1952: Otto Preminger joins the cast.
Jan. 15, 1952: Now Holden is the lead in the film.
Jan. 24, 1952: "Stalag" playwright Edmund Trzcinski joins the cast ... and another plug for Cy Howard.
Jan. 31, 1952: Peter Graves joins the cast in the critical role of Price.
Feb. 9, 1952: Holden's brother Richard Beedle gets a small role.
Feb. 13, 1952: The stage version of "Stalag 17" has an all-male cast, but this blurb makes it sound like Paramount is writing women in the film. According to imdb, "Stalag 17" is Audrey Strauss' only film role.
Feb. 15, 1952: Another role is cast.
Feb. 16, 1952: Cy Howard drops out of the picture and gets a lengthy blurb from Hedda Hopper. In fact, Hopper has given more space to Howard than she has to Holden!
July 16, 1953: "Stalag 17" opens in Los Angeles after a premiere in Beverly Hills. Perhaps in response to the disaster of "Ace in the Hole," the ad campaign spins the movie as a comedy. "One of the funniest films of the year" ... "best of the war comedy pictures" ... "finest comedy drama out of Hollywood this year."
Philip K. Scheuer's review says: "Billy Wilder, one of the most caustic-minded of Hollywood's writer-director-producers, has taken a stage hit by Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski and preserved its essential humor and tragedy with no dulling of its corrosive edges, though he has cleaned it up in both language and situations."
June 15, 1951: "Ace in the Hole" opens in Los Angeles.
April 7, 1950: Billy Wilder is casting a film with the working title "Human Interest Story" and renames it "Ace in the Hole."
April 13, 1950: Jan Sterling is cast in the film.
Hedda Hopper, who had a small role in Wilder's last film, "Sunset Boulevard," plugs "Ace in the Hole."
June 16, 1950: Casting for the film continues.
Aug. 20, 1950: The Times finally interviews Billy Wilder. Wilder tells The Times' Philip K. Scheuer: "Class in pictures nowadays has to be smuggled in like contraband and artistry is a nasty word" ... "The question about a picture is not whether it is good or bad but whether it is alive or dead.... 'Casablanca' was full of holes as a story, but it was alive as a film and the public loved it."
June 10, 1951: An early example of damage control. Paramount obviously knew a movie as bitter and caustic as "Ace in the Hole" would be a tough sell.
June 16, 1951: The Times' Edwin Schallert praises "Ace in the Hole": "Controversial and challenged as this Paramount production will prove to be, it has a singular power and fascination. The writing ... seems extraordinarily potent."
June 20, 1951: Hedda Hopper pans "Ace in the Hole."
Aug. 19, 1951: "Ace in the Hole" is renamed "The Big Carnival." The movie will languish in obscurity for decades.
Feb. 13, 1951: Gloria Swanson (Best Actress), William Holden (Best Actor), Nancy Olson (Best Supporting Actress) and Erich von Stroheim (Best Supporting Actor) are nominated for Academy Awards. "Sunset Boulevard" is nominated as best picture; Billy Wilder is nominated as best director and Wilder, Charles Brackett and D.M. Marshman Jr. are nominated for best story and screenplay. The film's 11 nominations include best art direction, black and white, Edwin B. Willis and Hugh Hunt; best black and white cinematography, John Seitz; film editing, Arthur Schmidt and Doane Harrison; and film score, Franz Waxman.
The film won three awards: film score, art direction and writing.
At right, April 18, 1951, Swanson was a sentinmental favorite for an Academy Award, but she didn't win. Instead, the Oscar went to Judy Holliday for "Born Yesterday.."
"Since working with a man as stimulating as Billy Wilder, I've become terribly interested in directing," Holden says.
"Holden had himself named 'assistant to the director' when Wilder started 'Ace in the Hole,' but they soon called him away to slap on the greasepaint."
Nov. 6, 1948: Gloria Swanson meets Billy Wilder and Charles Bracket to discuss "Sunset Boulevard."
Feb. 10, 1949: The script isn't done.
Above, Gloria Swanson and Melvyn Douglas in a clip from the 1931 picture "Tonight or Never."
But despite her long film career, Swanson made a screen test for "Sunset Boulevard," according to The Times, Feb. 17, 1949
Feb. 22, 1949: Swanson is cast in "Sunset Boulevard."
March 4, 1949: The cast includes Montgomery Clift.
March 19, 1949: Clift is out.
March 27, 1949: A prophetic notice in The Times.
April 2, 1949, Erich von Stroheim returns to Hollywood to make "Sunset Boulevard."
May 28, 1950: The Times says William Holden had never seen Gloria Swanson in a film until working on "Sunset Boulevard."
At left, Sept. 22, 1950: Swanson and Von Stroheim are paid $430,592.11 USD 2007 for their roles in the film.
May 1, 1949: Swanson is emphatic that "Sunset Boulevard" is not autobiographical. Von Stroheim complains bitterly about being typecast by Hollywood.
June 1, 1949: Casting Hedda Hopper in "Sunset Boulevard" was a brilliant stroke of marketing as it ensured frequent plugs for the movie.
Above, a description of the opening that was cut from the final version of the film.
June 18, 1949: Hopper reports on her scene in the film.
Wilder wanted Nancy Olson to look plain for her scenes in the film.
June 20, 1949: A Swanson impersonator is a regular on the set.
Above: "They'll love it in Pomona."
Jan. 3, 1950: A photo shows people on the set while Holden and Swanson film a key scene.
Aug. 25, 1950: "There is just one primary issue and that is of public receptiveness to a story of this kind. Will people welcome tearing aside the curtain on much that is sinister and terrible in Hollywood? ... 'Sunset Boulevard' ... tells a sordid narrative that might very well be duplicated in real life. It minces no issues. It is threaded with bitterness, disillusionment and hovers ever over the age of despair."
-- Edwin Schallert
At left, one of the stranger items I've ever found in going through the old papers: An Earl Scheib ad that features "Sunset Boulevard." Scheib actually mentioned the movie several times in his ads.
Above, Nov. 7, 1950: Hopper reports that Brackett has signed a seven-year contract with Fox after the end of his deal with Wilder and Paramount.
Nov. 4, 1948: "A Song Is Born" opens in Los Angeles.
Nov. 5, 1948: The Times reviews Howard Hawks' remake of "Ball of Fire" as a showcase for jazz musicians Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey, Charlie Barnett, Lionel Hampton and Mel Powell.
